Eating healthy to be healthy never rang so true - An onion story

Dear Sexy Readers,

Out with friends and talking about the fact that we are all coming down with a cold or other illness at the moment, my friend M. then replied that he hasn't fallen ill in 3 years because he has been regularly eating rings of raw onions! I just looked at him and said "What the Hell are you talking about? Dude, that's probably a myth" and thought to myself "Jeez, I need to check that out for my SSS peeps"...
BTW, Onions have previously made the SSS team when we looked at why we cry when we chop them, check it out  ;)

Onions, your winter best friend?
Why, first I googled it and what did I find? An amazing old wive's tale whereby cut onions left in rooms would protect inhabitants from illnesses. While you can read accounts of people of how they recovered from pneumonia after leaving half an onion pierced with a fork in a glass on their bedside table, there is no scientific proof to show that onions can actually absorb bacteria and viruses and free your room of these (after all) non-airborne germs!!
What you can find however regarding the consumption of onions is  a division in "beliefs" with one party (non-scientific one) that claims that eating onions - that have absorbed germs - is bad for your health and will transfer the germs to your body and the other party (scientific one) that doesn't refute the potential boost onions can give to your immunity in the fight against germs.

Onions - anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory wonders
Turned out that many ingredients in your kitchen have health benefits such as garlic and turmeric to name but a few!
But I think first we need to look at what is an anti-oxidant and what the fuss is all about:

Antioxidant
An antioxidant by definition prevents oxidation. Oxidation reactions in our body are essential but some of them produce free radicals. Those free radicals can cause serious damage by messing with the structure of big molecules that are necessary for the fitness of your system. That is why it is important to get rid of them, but an imbalance between those free radicals and your antioxidants can lead to the development of diseases.

From HERE

Anti-inflammatory
As its name says, it reduces inflammation. Inflammation is the response of our body to infection/injury. In the case of an injury or an external inflammation such as acne and dermatitis, the 4 typical signs of inflammation at a site are being red, hot, painful and swollen. But  inflammatory diseases also include allergies, cancer, atherosclerosis, appendicitis etc...

From HERE

My onions
So what is it exactly that is so good for you! Well in fact in onions there are 3 goodnesses called Quercetin, Kaempferol and Myricetin. These are what scientists call Flavonols.
FYI: Flavonol are part of a big family, the Flavonoids, and its sister Flavanal is found in dark chocolate (and gives its bitterness).
You can find Flavonols in fruits, vegetables, leaves and grains but they are present at their highest concentrations in onions, tea, apples, berries, kale and broccoli. You can also find them as supplemented ingredients in food, mostly as preservatives.
Quercetin is most abundant in onions and apples.
In terms of magic wonders, Kaempferol has been shown to reduce the risk of developing disorders such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases for their properties as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anticancer, cardioprotective, neuroprotective, antidiabetic, antiosteoporotic, anxiolytic, analgesic and antiallergic.
Myricetin, also present in red wine, has antioxidant properties and some research suggests that it could help keep your cholesterol low.
Also a big study on people diet habits has shown that smokers had a lower risk of developing pancreatic cancer (both are linked) if they were including flavonol rich foods such as onions (and therefore a combination of these 3 flavonols) and apples (Nöthlings et al, 2007).

Raw or cooked?
As far as the studies go, there was no distinction between the two so I can only assume that it doesn't matter. In fact, in this paper, patients had to fill a form that listed several foods, including apple (ie.uncooked) and onions as such or as part of a mixed cooked dishes (Nöthlings et al, 2007).

Onion soup recipe
Waiting to hear from fellow bloggers for theirs, here is one out of the bbc good food website!

Here you go my dear sexy readers, Come back soon for some more SSS,

References
Wikipedia
Nöthlings et al, Am J Epidemiol 2007; 166: 924-931
Diplock et al., Br J Nutr 1998; 80 Supp1: S77-112
Tapsell et al., Med J Aust 2006; 185 Supp4: S4-24